08/24/2018

Text:

Solved!! So I figured out what was wrong. My Macbooksystem was running High Sierra which means that the hardinternal SSD drive had been converted to the newer Apple APFS file system. Early OS versions are unable to read APFS drives. Partdrives!

Part of the upgrade that enables APFS is a firmware/SMC update to the logic board. The replacement boards that I received had only ever been upgraded through OS XOS-X Mountain Lion. SoSo with the older logic boards there was no way for them to read any of the internal SSD drive, including the boot partition. BootingBooting with a recovery disk I was able to go into Disk Utilities and determine that my disk was being seen just fine at the hardware level and in fact I could use the Verify function to actually see that all my files were there.

Solved!! So I figured out what was wrong. My Macbooksystem was running High Sierra which means that the hardinternal SSD drive had been converted to the newer Apple APFS file system. Early OS versions are unable to read APFS drives. Partdrives!

Part of the upgrade that enables APFS is a firmware/SMC update to the logic board. The replacement boards that I received had only ever been upgraded through OS XOS-X Mountain Lion. SoSo with the older logic boards there was no way for them to read any of the internal SSD drive, including the boot partition. BootingBooting with a recovery disk I was able to go into Disk Utilities and determine that my disk was being seen just fine at the hardware level and in fact I could use the Verify function to actually see that all my files were there.

-followed* Followed prompts to download OS XOS-X Mountain Lion which I installed to the external drive

-once USB drive* Once the install of OS XOS-X was complete I checked for updates. It showed an SMC update and some other things so I went ahead and did those updates. NotNot sure if jumping right to the High Sierra update would have rolled up all of these into one...butone... but didn't want to find out. SoSo I went ahead with them.

-then* Then when complete went back to App Store where it was prompting to install High Sierra 10.13.1. WentWent ahead and did that which includes a fairly long update period with multiple restarts as it upgrades the file system (on the USB drive) and performs the firmware updates to the logic board.

-once* Once update was complete it rebooted off the USB drive into High Sierra. GoingGoing to Finder it was obvious that everything had worked as I could see all of my internal SSD. SoSo I shut down and disconnected the external USB drive.

-powered* Powered up and it booted perfectly off my original, intact, internal SSD. HadSSD! Had to feed it a couple of passwords that must have failed some security check or what not...butnot... but other than that I was right back to where I was before. '''DONE!'''Thanks to iFixit for their patience while I worked through the troubleshooting to get this solved. So just realize that if you are upgrading the logic board on a computer that is running High Sierra on a SSD... that you need to be swapping in a logic board that has the appropriate SMC and firmware updates completed (i.e. harvested from a High Sierra running machine) or it will not be able to read any of your APFS formatted SSD drives (or if you’ve manually updated your HDD).

-followed* Followed prompts to download OS XOS-X Mountain Lion which I installed to the external drive

-once USB drive* Once the install of OS XOS-X was complete I checked for updates. It showed an SMC update and some other things so I went ahead and did those updates. NotNot sure if jumping right to the High Sierra update would have rolled up all of these into one...butone... but didn't want to find out. SoSo I went ahead with them.

-then* Then when complete went back to App Store where it was prompting to install High Sierra 10.13.1. WentWent ahead and did that which includes a fairly long update period with multiple restarts as it upgrades the file system (on the USB drive) and performs the firmware updates to the logic board.

-once* Once update was complete it rebooted off the USB drive into High Sierra. GoingGoing to Finder it was obvious that everything had worked as I could see all of my internal SSD. SoSo I shut down and disconnected the external USB drive.

-powered* Powered up and it booted perfectly off my original, intact, internal SSD. HadSSD! Had to feed it a couple of passwords that must have failed some security check or what not...butnot... but other than that I was right back to where I was before. '''DONE!'''Thanks to iFixit for their patience while I worked through the troubleshooting to get this solved. So just realize that if you are upgrading the logic board on a computer that is running High Sierra on a SSD... that you need to be swapping in a logic board that has the appropriate SMC and firmware updates completed (i.e. harvested from a High Sierra running machine) or it will not be able to read any of your APFS formatted SSD drives (or if you’ve manually updated your HDD).

Thanks to iFixit for their patience while I worked through the troubleshooting to get this solved. So just realize that if you are upgrading the logic board on a computer that is running High Sierra...that you need to be swapping in a logic board that has the appropriate SMC and firmware updates completed (ie harvested from a High Sierra running machine) or it will not be able to read any of your APFS formatted file system. You'llYou'll have to either manually load the firmware updates (if they are even available stand alone ?alone?) or just do as I did, and labor through the OS upgrades to force the updates.

Thanks to iFixit for their patience while I worked through the troubleshooting to get this solved. So just realize that if you are upgrading the logic board on a computer that is running High Sierra...that you need to be swapping in a logic board that has the appropriate SMC and firmware updates completed (ie harvested from a High Sierra running machine) or it will not be able to read any of your APFS formatted file system. You'llYou'll have to either manually load the firmware updates (if they are even available stand alone ?alone?) or just do as I did, and labor through the OS upgrades to force the updates.

Status:

open

05/17/2018

Text:

Solved!! So I figured out what was wrong. My Macbook was running High Sierra which means that the hard drive had been converted to the newer Apple APFS file system. Early OS versions are unable to read APFS drives. Part of the upgrade that enables APFS is a firmware/SMC update to the logic board. The replacement boards that I received had only ever been upgraded through OS X Mountain Lion. So with the older logic boards there was no way for them to read any of the internal drive, including the boot partition. Booting with a recovery disk I was able to go into Disk Utilities and determine that my disk was being seen just fine at the hardware level and in fact I could use the Verify function to actually see that all my files were there.
So the solution was to:
-attach an external USB drive (formatted to MacOS extended (journaled) with GUID partition scheme. I used a USB 3.0 drive which makes the process considerably faster.
-hold Option, Command, R to enter Network Recovery
-followed prompts to download OS X Mountain Lion which I installed to the external drive
-once install of OS X was complete I checked for updates. It showed an SMC update and some other things so I went ahead and did those updates. Not sure if jumping right to the High Sierra update would have rolled up all of these into one...but didn't want to find out. So I went ahead with them.
-then when complete went back to App Store where it was prompting to install High Sierra 10.13.1. Went ahead and did that which includes a fairly long update period with multiple restarts as it upgrades the file system (on the USB drive) and performs the firmware updates to the logic board.
-once update was complete it rebooted off the USB drive into High Sierra. Going to Finder it was obvious that everything had worked as I could see all of my internal SSD. So I shut down and disconnected the external USB drive.
-powered up and it booted perfectly off my original, intact, internal SSD. Had to feed it a couple of passwords that must have failed some security check or what not...but other than that I was right back to where I was before.
Thanks to iFixit for their patience while I worked through the troubleshooting to get this solved. So just realize that if you are upgrading the logic board on a computer that is running High Sierra...that you need to be swapping in a logic board that has the appropriate SMC and firmware updates completed (ie harvested from a High Sierra running machine) or it will not be able to read any of your APFS formatted file system. You'll have to either manually load the firmware updates (if they are even available stand alone ??) or just do as I did, and labor through the OS upgrades to force the updates.